INDIANAPOLIS — Jalen Taylor scored 20 points, Manny Bates added 19 and a goaltending call lon Eric Hunter Jr.’s drive to the basket 2.5 seconds left helped Butler to a 69-67 win over No. 13 Xavier on Friday night.
The Bulldogs (13-13, 5-10 Big East) reached .500 again by winning their second straight two-point game this week, after losing seven of their previous nine — and their first in six tries over a ranked foe this season. The win sent fans streaming onto the court.
Souley Boum’s long heave at the buzzer bounced off the back of the rim for Xavier (19-6, 11-3), which never led in the game. Colby Jones had 17 points and eight rebounds, and Jack Nunge had 14 points and eight rebounds to lead the Musketeers.
The Bulldogs, who have struggled to find a consistent winning combination all season, fed off the energy of sold out Hinkle Fieldhouse. But after putting together perhaps their most complete first half this season, they still needed some help to hold on in a wacky finish.
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Nunge, the sixth-year senior, was called for a technical foul with 23.4 seconds left. Taylor made both free throws to give Butler a 66-62 lead, but the Musketeers got a stop on the extra possession and made a 3-pointer to cut the deficit to 66-65 with 13.5 seconds to play.
Taylor then made 1 of 2 two free throws before inexplicably fouling Boum near midcourt with 9.1 seconds left. Boum made both free throws to tie the score at 67.
On the ensuing possession, Hunter took advantage of a screen thrown by Bates to steam through the lane, only to have the dunk attempt blocked. The officials called it a goaltend, which withstood a replay review.
NMSU suspends operations: New Mexico State indefinitely suspended its men’s basketball program in a virtually unheard-of move that the university says is unrelated to a fatal shooting involving one of its players last year.
The school also placed first-year coach Greg Heiar and his staff on administrative leave for what it said were violations of university policy and separate from the Nov. 19 shooting of a student from rival University of New Mexico. Aggies power forward Mike Peake was suspended in early December while a third-party investigator looks into his involvement in the shooting in Albuquerque.
The shut-down of a Division I program in midseason for reasons other than a spate of injuries or, more recently, a COVID-19 outbreak, is virtually unheard of. SMU’s football program canceled its 1988 season after the NCAA handed it the “death penalty” the year before, but that move was made before the season was underway.
New Mexico State’s game against California Baptist on Saturday has been cancelled, and it is unknown how many more of the team’s five remaining games, all in the Western Athletic Conference, will also be wiped out.
The program has been teetering since the night of the shooting. Shortly after the shooting, Heiar loaded the team onto a bus and left town, minus Peake and three players who had picked him up and taken him to the hospital with a leg injuries. Police stopped the bus on its way back to the school’s campus, three hours south in Las Cruces.
Peake has not been charged in the shooting. The district attorney in Albuquerque is conducting a separate investigation.
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